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The Exo Stranger

The Exo Stranger

Character Lore

Welcome back guardians. Today I want to cover some speculation about the identity of the Exo Stranger and I wanted to end with some wild speculation about Destiny’s hidden love story. Now I actually wrote this a couple of days ago, in the meantime, Destiny released a Weekly Update that details their plans for a Valentine’s Day event.

This video was never intended to compliment that update and I do not think a Valentine’s Day event will be well received by the player base. However, please don’t let your feelings about a Valentine’s Day event in Destiny taint your reception of what I think would make amazing lore story.

Let’s begin.

My starting point for trying to identify the Exo Stranger, was the Exotic pulse rifle, “No time to explain”. It’s design is identical to the Stranger’s Rifle and therefore a clear link to the Exo Stranger. You receive the pulse rifle by completing an exotic quest line, a quest line that begins with the mission the Paradox, a mission about the warlock Praedyth.

When you complete the alternative ending for the mission the Paradox you discover a chest and when opened you receive Praedyth’s ghost. A ghost branded with Future War Cult Headers. This is the item that triggers the Exotic quest line.
Upon handing in Praedyth’s Ghost Shell to the Future War Cult faction leader, Lakshmi-2 ,she says this,

“A guardian I’ve never heard of leaves behind a Ghost I’ve never seen carrying files stamped with Cult headers, files I would have had to authorize to be stamped that way.”

This reinforces the power of the Vex and their ability to wipe names from history. I believe Praedyth was a member of the Future War Cult and ventured into the Vault of Glass, with his name wiped from existence, consequently, Lakshmi-2 has no recollection of Praedyth.

The plot thickens during the exotic quest line as you discover jewelry pieces, Ana Bray’s bracelet and the Warlock Pujari’s ring, all of which are given back to Future War Cult. The collection of jewelry pieces instantly reminds of the amulet worn by the Coven Mother, i.e. the Queen’s lead Techeun, an amulet that provides visions beyond the veil. This reference to the “veil” should also sound familiar, in the Ghost Fragment: The Future War Cult grimoire card, it describes the use of a prototype device, a device that delivers maddening visions of the future, also known as “opening of the veil”.

The theme I am hinting at is, all the trails of evidence keep leading us back to one specific group, Future War Cult.

So if we draw our attention to the Ghost Fragment: Future War Cult grimoire card, you will notice it is written in a very specific format. It says “RECORD” followed by numbers, dash, “CHASM” dash followed by more numbers. This format is repeated in the Ghost Fragment: Vex 5 grimoire card.

The Ghost Fragment Vex cards are all about Maya Sundaresh’s research team, which includes her lover Chioma Esi, Dr. Shim and Duane McNiadh. This research team was experimenting on a Vex mind when they discovered a simulated reality. Within the Vex simulation they could see images of their virtual self. This concerned the researchers because they thought for a moment, that if the Vex could so accurately mimic reality, what’s to say they are not already in the simulation.

The research team planned to prove that they were the true reality by involving the Warmind, Rasputin. They predicted that Rasputin was so complex that the Vex could not simulate it, so if they could successfully contact him, it would prove that they were NOT already in a simulation.

The team was successful and they proved their reality and decided to go on the counter-attack. They created virtual beings of themselves, 227 virtual selves that they planned to send out into the Vex network as explorers. They hoped that the virtual explorers would return with answers from the future with strategies to destroy the Vex. Rasputin was integral to this plan as he provided a neural firewall. The entry point for the virtual explorers was at the Vex citadel on Venus.

So what do the virtual explorers who entered the Vex system, with the assistance of Rasputin, have to do with Future War Cult. Well, one of those researchers, may have been the founding member of Future War Cult. Her name is Maya Sundaresh.

The greatest evidence for this is in the Ghost Fragment: Vex 5 card. Maya Sundaresh is working on a secret project located in Lhasa, which is the capital of Tibet (Keep that in mind for later). It has been forty years since they sent their virtual selves into the Vex network. Currently she is separated from her lover, Chioma Esi, who is located on Hyperion. On a side note, Chioma Esi appears to be female, as indicated in the Ghost Fragment Vex 4 card, where Chioma is referred to as a “she”.

Maya Sundaresh feels so isolated and alone in her research, that she tries using a device to speak with Chioma. However, this device is more than an intergalactic telephone, she calls it a mind-ship, a device capable of displacing its payload across space and time. She tries to use the device to seek out the virtual Chioma within the Vex network, desperate to speak with her and send her love.

The card continues to provide more information about this device saying that the human subjects turned mad and some even committed suicide, haunted by visions of their future. This experimentation is being overseen by a Warmind and the Warmind devises a drug to help protect and prepare the researchers. Even with this, Maya Sundaresh makes an extremely interesting comment, she says, “I think it’s clear that part of the problem is substrate. We need more than flesh and drug to survive this.”

I believe this is the very first mention of the creation of the Exos. Maya Sundaresh understands that the human mind was too fragile and they required a blend of Human traits and robotic traits to survive the Vex Network.

However, before finishing her work, Maya Sundaresh resigns, she claims that she can no longer take the separation from Chioma and she leaves her records saying,

“I can’t take this journal out with me, so I’ve left it for the others, and asked them to continue the log. Maybe it’ll become a tradition. The gospel of our little cult.”

Yes.. .I believe this is a reference to Future War Cult, and even though Maya Sundaresh resigned, her work started the foundation for Future War Cult, a faction obsessed with trying to glimpse into the future to understand how to win.

This is reinforced by the Future War Cult grimoire card which documents the use of an experimental device and that allowed the subjects to see into the future, once again the subjects become mad with this knowledge. This is identical to the research that Maya Sundaresh was completing. Furthermore, the cards says how they were able to refine the device from documents found in a Golden Age laboratory, guess where the laboratory was located… yes, Tibet. The same place where Maya Sundaresh was conducting her research. I believe they are referring to the discover of her research notes.

This directly links Maya Sundaresh and her actions to the creation of The Future War Cult. But what does this have to do with Exos, or more accurately the Exo Stranger. Well, many believe that Maya Sundaresh is also the Exo Stranger.

A number of people have previously already speculated on this; please see the description for their forum posts. I know Hoshiko Yoshida is sub of this channel.

There are two pieces of evidence that I believe completes this puzzle. The first is the Titan Mark, Deep Stone Crypt. The mark reads,

“A badge illustrating the infamous subroutine which seeded the first Exo consciousness”

. If we look at the illustration, it looks like a Vex structure, and I believe this to be the Citadel Tower. The same exact location where Rasputin assisted the Virtual explorers to enter the Vex network.

Does this mean, that the Virtual explorers are the pre-cursor to the creation of the Exos, they are the first, they are the seeds? Consequently, the virtual explorers are prime suspects for the identity of the Exo Stranger.

The second piece of evidence comes from the Exo Stranger 2 grimoire card. This card is written in the same format we have seen in Future War Cult documents and the reports from Maya Sundaresh. However the word CHASM has been replaced with the word BRIDGE. The general format is significant, as I believe it indicates that the Exo Stranger is a researcher. This type of documentation was first seen by Maya Sandurash, then it was adopted by Future War Cult and now we are seeing it again with the Exo Stranger grimoire cards.

The reason why I think the Exo Stranger is Maya Sundaresh and not another researcher, whether that was in her original team or from Future War Cult is in Ghost Fragment: Vex 5 she says this,

“As a scientist, I believe in record-keeping. I believe in protocols”

She writes notes to her lover in this record keeping format. When she became the Exo Stranger she kept her scientific mind, she did not lose her habits for documentation and she continued with this specific style of record keeping. The CHASM was replaced with BRIDGE because she finally discovered how to bridge the gap between timelines and as the Exo Stranger, she can now dissolve in and out of reality.

Now for some wild speculation. Why did Maya Sundaresh become the Exo Stranger?

Maya Sundaresh resigned from her research facility because she wanted to be with Chioma. We also know that Maya was so desperate to see and talk with her lover she risked madness by using the device to see into the Vex network, trying to find a virtual Chioma to speak with.

Well, what if Chioma died at some point, maybe killed by the Vex.

Maya’s first thought would be to return to the Vex Citadel to enter the Vex network herself and find a virtual Chioma so that they could be reunited even in death. From her experiments in Tibet, Maya knew that human mind was too weak to explore the Vex network and she knew she needed to be something more, she needed to ba an Exo, this would allow her to enter the simulations and wander thousands of timelines looking for her love. It also provides a reason to why the Exo War Machines still had the ability to feel emotions.

Maybe after becoming the Exo Stranger, Maya Sundaresh found that Chioma’s fate could not be altered and she witnessed her death at the hands of the Vex thousands of times. Maya Sundaresh becomes hell-bent on defeating the Vex, hoping that maybe if the Vex are defeated she could save Chioma.

Now, Maya Sundaresh, the Exo Stranger, wanders countless timelines to find guardians who are strong enough to defeat the Vex and reunite her with her love.

Thank you for watching, I hoped you enjoyed this latest video, I have not done this in some time, but if you would like to support the channel and cannot think of a comment, you can leave the comment, “star-crossed lovers”. As usual it has been a pleasure, this is myelin games. Peace.